A lot of research on the Shona novel has focussed on the influence of orature and the Bible. It has also focused on the influence that the Southern Rhodesia Literature Bureau had on its development. This research has endeavoured to highlight the reliability and validity of the Shona novel as a historical document. The dependability of the novel as an alternative site from which history can be deciphered is corroborated by historical documents. The history that comes out in the Shona novels that have been studied covers the pre-colonial period right up to the post-independence period. Among the issues that come up in the research that relate to history are the Rozvi state under Chirisamhuru, the economic activities in pre-colonial Shona society that include raids for cattle and women as well as hunting and external trade. The Shona novel has also proved historically reliable in as far as it relates to the navigability of the Save River. It has highlighted the living conditions and the wages that Blacks got in colonial Rhodesia and exposed the land imbalances that came into existence because of the Land Apportionment Act of 1930, which left Blacks living on the periphery and in overcrowded, hot and dry reserves that were hardly fertile. The Rhodesian authorities, as the novels have exposed, denied most Blacks access to education. When schools were provided, they were poorly staffed and those on farms functioned more as labour pools than schools. The novel has also proved its dependability when it highlights the early days of the nationalist movement and the unilateral declaration of independence of 1965. It has also brought to the fore the birth of the armed struggle and the Rhodesian responses to it. The Rhodesians responded politically and militarily. Politically, it was through the Internal Settlement Agreement of March 1978. Militarily they moved people into 'protected villages' in an effort to deny guerrillas access to food and clothing. The novel also highlights the post-independence period especially political intolerance. / African Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Text in English / The study unravels moral perversion in selected post-independence detective Shona novels. Moral perversion is a multi-faceted concept and the study focuses on corruption, sexual harassment, abuse of office, stealing, poaching and illegal manufacturing of intoxicating products as the key definers of moral perversion. Afrocentricity merged with Kawaida philosophy are the lenses used to pass critical judgements on the extent the selected literary practitioners portrayed literature rooted in the African ontological existence on moral perversion. Fictional works used as primary sources are Sajeni Chimedza (1984), Mutikitivha Dumbuzenene (1991), Munzwa mundove (1999) and Dandemutande, (1998). All the novels are set in the post-independence era in Zimbabwe when moral perversion is rife. The study is qualitative in nature and data was gathered using questionnaires and interviews from literary critics, publishers and novelists. Particular attention is paid on the causes of moral perversion, images of people in leadership positions and the implications of character assassination of leaders in relation to the development of purposeful literature. The study contends that moral insanity is an acknowledged problem in the post-independence era and novelists are portraying leaders as the chief culprits manning factionalism and unorthodox ways of acquiring resources at the expense of the majority of citizenry. Guided and informed by Afrocentricity, the study argues that novelists are raising pertinent issues although their views are myopic, simplistic and self-defeating because they are failing to see that the leaders are also victims who are victimizing other victims. Blaming the leadership on moral perversion ignoring the impact of colonialism, and neo-colonialism in shaping African personality creates more harm than good as this exonerates the imperialistic system of exploitation which impinges on African culture and personality. Therefore, the study argues that novelists erroneously blame individuals for the sins of a system. There is need to interrogate both external and internal factors to establish sustainable home-grown problem solving solutions to improve human condition and the development of functional literature in Africa. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

This study sought to uncover gender bias in selected Shona novels and examine the manner in which authors present the subject. The major objectives were to identify the effects of hostile gender relations and assess Shona novel authors’ commitments to promote healthy gender relations which are pre-requisites for national development. The study adopted the dual approach by fusing feminism with Afrocentricity as the literary tool of analysis. These theories served as lenses for exploring gender biases in selected Shona novels. The liberal feminism was the most relevant feminist theory to this study because it advocates more about inclusion and unrestricted participation of women in all spheres of social life. The research was anchored on the qualitative design. The methodology used to gather data for analysis involved interviewing three out of four authors of this research’s selected Shona novels, eight Shona literature lecturers from teachers’ colleges and universities in Zimbabwe as well as five accomplished scholars who have also written their own Shona novels. Questionnaires were administered to thirty two students, twenty from teachers’ colleges and twelve from universities in Zimbabwe. The total number of all participants in this study was forty-eight and purposive sampling was used to come up with the sample. Data was analysed in descriptive form. This study has established that most Shona novelists are not gender neutral. While some authors are championing the emancipation of women others are perpetuating their marginalisation. Basing on the findings of this study, the researcher recommends that Shona authors should be sensitised through workshops, seminars or conferences on the need to pen gender balanced novels if national development is to be realised. This would help the societies who are the consumers of such novels to be gender neutral through emulating the positive portrayal attributed to characters. The Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (ZIMSEC), teachers’ colleges and universities should approve gender neutral Shona novels so that students can have appropriate role models to emulate. It is envisaged that this research will be of great benefit to all those who will have the privilege to access it. Gained knowledge will help to extricate women from marginalisation and also promote healthy gender relations. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

This study examines the myth of the surrogate power of canonicity by exposing the condition of liminality of the Zimbabwean short story genre within African literary canon. Building on the hypothesis that canonisation distorts literature the study postulates that literary canon produce predictable biases in construing the position of the short story. It fossilises and condenses the marginal genres to the extent that the existing canon repertoire hardly recognises them. The peripheral but de facto canon of the short story genre entertains a strong relationship of heteronomy to the mainstream/central canon. This thesis studies this relationship which determines canon formation within the African literary systems. It challenges the prevailing status quo in which the short story is polarised against other literary modes. The polarity creates a charged diametric force between the presumed canonical genres and the supposedly non-canonical short story mess. What lacks in this equation of conflicts is a sense of revival, reformation and continuity of the short story canon. The marginality of the short story canon is predicated on factors external to the genre itself, such as the influence of colonial institutions, collegiate institutions and publishers on writers. These factors pervade the dialectics of canonical marginality of the genre. The study, which argues that there is no unanimity on theory of canon, proposes Africulture, as both a theory and praxis of Afrocentricity, to function as an arbiter of short story literary reputation and consecration. The research reveres the autonomous value of African story-telling tradition which withstood the test and movement of time, in the process, surviving not only the historical-cum-cultural threat of colonial loss and canonical displacement, but also the throes and will power of new media and digital technologies. The ascendancy of the electronic short story genre to canonical status remains questionable. Critical controversies abound about the canonicity of electronic literature. The study employs Technauriture as a theoretical model for rethinking the transcendence of the electronic short story canon. The study concludes that, by virtue of its resilience, the short story ought to be treated as a wholesale and independent genre, worth of full scale appreciation. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

A lot of research on the Shona novel has focussed on the influence of orature and the Bible. It has also focused on the influence that the Southern Rhodesia Literature Bureau had on its development. This research has endeavoured to highlight the reliability and validity of the Shona novel as a historical document. The dependability of the novel as an alternative site from which history can be deciphered is corroborated by historical documents. The history that comes out in the Shona novels that have been studied covers the pre-colonial period right up to the post-independence period. Among the issues that come up in the research that relate to history are the Rozvi state under Chirisamhuru, the economic activities in pre-colonial Shona society that include raids for cattle and women as well as hunting and external trade. The Shona novel has also proved historically reliable in as far as it relates to the navigability of the Save River. It has highlighted the living conditions and the wages that Blacks got in colonial Rhodesia and exposed the land imbalances that came into existence because of the Land Apportionment Act of 1930, which left Blacks living on the periphery and in overcrowded, hot and dry reserves that were hardly fertile. The Rhodesian authorities, as the novels have exposed, denied most Blacks access to education. When schools were provided, they were poorly staffed and those on farms functioned more as labour pools than schools. The novel has also proved its dependability when it highlights the early days of the nationalist movement and the unilateral declaration of independence of 1965. It has also brought to the fore the birth of the armed struggle and the Rhodesian responses to it. The Rhodesians responded politically and militarily. Politically, it was through the Internal Settlement Agreement of March 1978. Militarily they moved people into 'protected villages' in an effort to deny guerrillas access to food and clothing. The novel also highlights the post-independence period especially political intolerance. / African Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

This thesis is an in-depth study of Shona fiction about the liberation war in Zimbabwe. It looks at the way Zimbabwe’s liberation war is portrayed in Shona fiction and focuses on the factors that shaped writers’ perspectives on that war. It is argued that Shona war fiction writers romanticised the war and in the process simplified and distorted history. The researcher postulates that writers’ perspectives on this liberation war were shaped by factors that include the mood of celebration and euphoria, the dominant ideology of the time, the situations of independence and freedom, and literary competitions. The thesis further raises and illustrates the point that writers produced romances of adventure because they were writing on the theme of war, and if one writes on the theme of war one ends up writing an adventure story. However, it is also acknowledged that because authors were writing on a historical event they could not ignore history completely. Some aspects of history are incorporated into the fiction, thereby retaining a semblance of historical realism. The post-independence period is also seen as a time of cultural revival and this is considered as the reason behind the authors’ tendency to celebrate Shona traditional institutions and culture. The celebration of Shona traditional religion and culture introduced into the fiction the element of the supernatural that strengthened the romance aspect of the novels. Shona war fiction writers also perpetuate female stereotyping. Female characters are depicted as everything except guerrilla fighters. It is argued that there are no female characters that play roles of guerrilla fighters because during the actual war women were not visible at the war front, fighting. The thesis argues that men, who were pioneers of the guerrilla war and writers of the war stories, excluded women from liberation war discourse and ultimately from literary discourse as well. A few writers who comment on the quality of Zimbabwe’s independence and freedom show the disillusionment and despair of the peasants and ex-combatants as they struggled to settle down and recover from the war. / African Languages / D.Litt. et Phil.

The study makes an analysis of Charles Mungoshi's Shona works from a Modernist perspective. In this study, Modernist literature is shown as full of change and adventure that has seen characters failing to catch up with the speed at which their social lives are going. The change is continuos and has resulted in many characters continuously failing to cope, which in turn has resulted in continuous frustrations, here described as despair. The study also shows how the despair is being nurtured in the circumstances of crumbling social institutions which, in the past, had acted as the haven for devastated individuals. The crumbling social institutions are shown to be triggering the despair and the characters are given no room to recuperate. The study makes an analysis of what brings this despair and how in the end, particular individual characters fight to ward off the despair. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

This thesis is an in-depth study of Shona fiction about the liberation war in Zimbabwe. It looks at the way Zimbabwe’s liberation war is portrayed in Shona fiction and focuses on the factors that shaped writers’ perspectives on that war. It is argued that Shona war fiction writers romanticised the war and in the process simplified and distorted history. The researcher postulates that writers’ perspectives on this liberation war were shaped by factors that include the mood of celebration and euphoria, the dominant ideology of the time, the situations of independence and freedom, and literary competitions. The thesis further raises and illustrates the point that writers produced romances of adventure because they were writing on the theme of war, and if one writes on the theme of war one ends up writing an adventure story. However, it is also acknowledged that because authors were writing on a historical event they could not ignore history completely. Some aspects of history are incorporated into the fiction, thereby retaining a semblance of historical realism. The post-independence period is also seen as a time of cultural revival and this is considered as the reason behind the authors’ tendency to celebrate Shona traditional institutions and culture. The celebration of Shona traditional religion and culture introduced into the fiction the element of the supernatural that strengthened the romance aspect of the novels. Shona war fiction writers also perpetuate female stereotyping. Female characters are depicted as everything except guerrilla fighters. It is argued that there are no female characters that play roles of guerrilla fighters because during the actual war women were not visible at the war front, fighting. The thesis argues that men, who were pioneers of the guerrilla war and writers of the war stories, excluded women from liberation war discourse and ultimately from literary discourse as well. A few writers who comment on the quality of Zimbabwe’s independence and freedom show the disillusionment and despair of the peasants and ex-combatants as they struggled to settle down and recover from the war. / African Languages / D.Litt. et Phil.

The study makes an analysis of Charles Mungoshi's Shona works from a Modernist perspective. In this study, Modernist literature is shown as full of change and adventure that has seen characters failing to catch up with the speed at which their social lives are going. The change is continuos and has resulted in many characters continuously failing to cope, which in turn has resulted in continuous frustrations, here described as despair. The study also shows how the despair is being nurtured in the circumstances of crumbling social institutions which, in the past, had acted as the haven for devastated individuals. The crumbling social institutions are shown to be triggering the despair and the characters are given no room to recuperate. The study makes an analysis of what brings this despair and how in the end, particular individual characters fight to ward off the despair. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

This study b·aces the development of the Shona clctective story as a genre different from rhe mainstream Shona novel. The Shona detective story emerges from the non-detective traditional folktale and develops into rhree types, namely, the rudimentary form. the pure 'whoduniC, and the detectivethriller. An attempt is made to show that when the Shona detective story first appeared it was quite elementary and showed signs of me influence of Shona traditional folklore. But later on authors developed the detective narrative into pure 'whodunits' and detective-mrillers which showed influence of Western ftlms and English detective stories. The study ends with the argument that although at its highest level of development the Shona detective story manifests characteristics that make it a unique genre different from other Shona novels its treatment of female characters is not very different from their treatment in the mainstream Shona novel. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)